Computer Tips for College Students

January 7, 2011

If you’re a junior or senior in college, it’s likely you’re still rocking out on the brand new laptop your parents got you when you were just entering college. By now, it’s probably not running as quickly as it was in Freshmen year. What can we say, the dozens of essays and research papers, not to mention the internet browsing (Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia) and additions to your music catalog have likely slowed it down a little.

Today’s post covers some tips LifeHacker.com has provided on speeding up your laptop. Make sure to give the post a read if you haven’t already, but in addition to that, here are 3 recommendations (2 of which are no cost) that come from our staff.

Download Google Chrome. So you remember when you first found out about Firefox and how fast it was compared to Internet Explorer? Well Google Chrome feels about 10x faster than Firefox! Free Download of Chrome at: http://www.google.com/chrome

Run a Defragmentation on your hard drive. Defragmentation is sort of like picking up clothes and tidying up around your place. It helps keep your files organized and in quick and easily accessible areas of your hard drive. Try to run a defragmentation every month or two.

Consider getting an external hard drive. If you’re short on hard drive space, opt for an external that will allow you to free up precious space from the C: drive and likely speed up your computer.

Download Avast Antivirus. It’s free for personal use. Let the program run a full and comprehensive scan of your system to ensure your computer is clean of viruses.